Chandy rules out resignation

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday ruled out his resignation over remarks made by the High Court of Kerala on Tuesday.

Talking to the media after a meeting of the Cabinet, the Chief Minister said that the Court had not made any strictures against him or the government. If the media was portraying the proceedings in the court in the solar scam as something against him and demanding his resignation, he was not going to accede to that.

Mr. Chandy said that persons mentioned in the complaint of M. K. Kuruvila on swindling of money were not associated with him. He had none called Deljit in his personal staff and no relative called Andrews . However, he had ordered an immediate investigation into the fraud on receipt of complaint from Mr. Kuruvila. However, the police investigation showed that Mr. Kuruvila owed money to Deljit and others.

The Chief Minister said that the comments of Government Chief Whip P. C. George advocating his resignation did not bother him. His functioning as Chief Minister was different from his predecessors. People could come to his office freely. They were also free to criticise him. Mr. George had not communicated to him his reported intention to resign as Chief Whip.

He said that nothing related the cheating of Sreedharan Nair had taken place in his office. The signing of the memorandum of understanding and payments made had taken place elsewhere.

Asked about the reported directive issued by the Director General of Police that the investigation of the scam should be limited to financial matters, Mr. Chandy said that criminal cases had been registered against Biju Radhakrishnan and Saritha Nair after the present government came to power. Though they had been arrested in 2009 (when the LDF was in power); they were discharged and the case was converted into a civil case. No action was taken against the third accused, A. Firoz.